THE MIDDY OBTAINS A DECIDED ADVANCE, AND MAKES PETER THE GREAT HIS
CONFIDANT.
Many months passed, after the events narrated in the last chapter,
before George Foster had the good-fortune to meet again with Hugh
Sommers, and several weeks elapsed before he had the chance of another
interview with the daughter.
Indeed, he was beginning to despair of ever again seeing either the one
or the other, and it required the utmost energy and the most original
suggestions of a hopeful nature on the part of his faithful friend to
prevent his giving way altogether, and having, as Peter expressed it,
"anoder fit ob de blues."
At last fortune favoured him. He was busy in the garden one day
planting flowers, when Peter came to him and said--
"I's got news for you to-day, Geo'ge."
"Indeed," said the middy, with a weary sigh; "what may your news be?"
"You 'member dat pictur' ob de coffee-house in de town what you doo'd?"
"Yes, now you mention it, I do, though I had almost forgotten it."
"Ah! but I not forgit 'im! Well, yesterday I tuk it to massa, an' he
bery much pleased. He say, bring you up to de house, an' he gib you
some work to do."
"I wish," returned Foster, "that he'd ask me to make a portrait of
little Hester Sommers."
"You forgit, Geo'ge, de Moors neber git deir portraits doo'd. Dey
'fraid ob de evil eye."
"Well, when are we to go up?"
"Now--I jist come for you."
Throwing down his garden tools, Foster followed the negro to the house,
and was ushered into a small chamber, the light of which was rendered
soft and mellow, by the stained glass windows through which it passed.
These windows were exceedingly small--not more than a foot high by eight
inches broad--and they were placed in the walls at a height of nine feet
or more from the ground. The walls of the room were decorated with
richly-coloured tiles, and the floor was of white marble, but the part
that attracted our hero most was the ceiling, which was arched,
according to Moorish form, and enriched with elaborate designs in
stucco--if not in white marble, the difference being difficult to
distinguish. On the marble floor lay several shawls, richly embroidered
in coloured silk and gold, a pair of small scarlet slippers, covered
with gold thread, a thin veil, and several cushions of different sizes.
On one of these last reposed a little tame gazelle, whose bright eyes
greeted the two slaves with an inquiring look as they entered.
From all these things Foster judged that this was one of the women's
apartments, and wondered much that he had been admitted into such a
jealously-guarded sanctuary, but relieved his mind by setting it down to
that eccentricity for which Ben-Ahmed was noted.
He had just arrived at this conclusion when a door opened, and Ben-Ahmed
himself entered with the sketch of the coffee-house in his hand.
"Tell him," said the Moor to Peter, "that I am much pleased with this
drawing, and wish him to make one, a little larger in size, of this
room. Let him put into it everything that he sees. He will find paper
in that portfolio, and all else that he requires on this ottoman. Let
him take time, and do it well. He need not work in the garden while
thus employed."
Pointing to the various things to which he referred, the Moor turned and
left the apartment.
"Now, Geo'ge, what you t'ink ob all dat?" asked Peter, with a broad
grin, when he had translated the Moor's orders.
"Really I don't know what to think of it. Undoubtedly it is a step
upwards, as compared with working in the garden; but then, don't you
see, Peter, it will give me much less of your company, which will be a
tremendous drawback?"
"Das well said. You's kite right. I hab notice from de fus' dat you
hab a well-constitooted mind, an' appruciates de value ob friendship. I
lub your smood face, Geo'ge!"
"I hope you love more of me than my smooth face, Peter," returned the
middy, "otherwise your love won't continue, for there are certain
indications on my upper lip which assure me that the smoothness won't
last long."
"Hol' your tongue, sar! What you go on jabberin' so to me when you's
got work to do, sar!" said Peter fiercely, with a threatening motion of
his fist. "Go to work at once, you white slabe!"
Our hero was taken aback for a moment by this sudden explosion, but the
presence of a negro girl, who had entered softly by a door at his back,
at once revealed to him the truth that Peter the Great had donned the
garb of the hypocrite. Although unused and very much averse to such
costume, he felt compelled in some degree to adopt it, and, bowing his
head, not only humbly, but in humiliation, he went silently towards his
drawing materials, while the girl placed a tumbler of water on a small
table and retired.
Turning round, he found that Peter had also disappeared from the scene.
At first he imagined that the water was meant for his refreshment, but
on examining the materials on the ottoman he found a box of water-colour
paints, which accounted for its being sent.
Although George Foster had never been instructed in painting, he
possessed considerable natural talent, and was intensely fond of the
art. It was, therefore, with feelings of delight which he had not
experienced for many a day that he began to arrange his materials and
set about this new and congenial work.
Among other things he found a small easel, which had a very Anglican
aspect about it. Wondering how it had got there, he set it up, with a
sheet of paper on it, tried various parts of the room, in order to find
out the best position for a picture, and went through that interesting
series of steppings back and puttings of the head on one side which seem
to be inseparably connected with true art.
While thus engaged in the profound silence of that luxurious apartment,
with its "dim religious light," now glancing at the rich ceiling, anon
at the fair sheet of paper, he chanced to look below the margin of the
latter and observed, through the legs of the easel, that the gorgeous
eyes of the gazelle were fixed on him in apparent wonder.
He advanced to it at once, holding out a hand coaxingly. The pretty
creature allowed him to approach within a few inches, and then bounded
from its cushion like a thing of india-rubber to the other end of the
room, where it faced about and gazed again.
"You gaze well, pretty creature," thought the embryo artist. "Perhaps
that's the origin of your name! Humph! you won't come to me?"
The latter part of his thoughts he expressed aloud, but the animal made
no response. It evidently threw the responsibility of taking the
initiative on the man.
Our middy was naturally persevering in character. Laying aside his
pencil, he sat down on the marble floor, put on his most seductive
expression, held out his hand gently, and muttered soft encouragements--
such as, "Now then, Spunkie, come here, an' don't be silly--" and the
like. But "Spunkie" still stood immovable and gazed.
Then the middy took to advancing in a sitting posture--after a manner
known to infants--at the same time intensifying the urbanity of his look
and the wheedlement of his tone. The gazelle suffered him to approach
until his fingers were within an inch of its nose. There the middy
stopped. He had studied animal nature. He was aware that it takes two
to love as well as to quarrel. He resolved to wait. Seeing this, the
gazelle timidly advanced its little nose and touched his finger. He
scratched gently! Spunkie seemed to like it. He scratched
progressively up its forehead. Spunkie evidently enjoyed it. He
scratched behind its ear, and--the victory was gained! The gazelle,
dismissing all fear, advanced and rubbed its graceful head on his
shoulder.
"Well, you _are_ a nice little beast," said Foster, as he fondled it;
"whoever owns you must be very kind to you, but I can't afford to waste
more time with you. Must get to work."
He rose and returned to his easel while the gazelle trotted to its
cushion and lay down--to sleep? perchance to dream?--no, to gaze, as
before, but in mitigated wonder.
The amateur painter-slave now applied himself diligently to his work
with ever-increasing interest; yet not altogether without an
uncomfortable and humiliating conviction that if he did not do it with
reasonable rapidity, and give moderate satisfaction, he ran the chance
of being "whacked" if not worse!
Let not the reader imagine that we are drawing the longbow here, and
making these Moors to be more cruel than they really were. Though
Ben-Ahmed was an amiable specimen, he was not a typical Algerine, for
cruelty of the most dreadful kind was often perpetrated by these
monsters in the punishment of trivial offences in those days. At the
present hour there stands in the great square of Algiers an imposing
mosque, which was designed by a Christian slave--an architect--whose
head was cut off because he had built it--whether intentionally or
accidentally we know not--in the form of a cross!
For some hours Foster worked uninterruptedly with his pencil, for he
believed, like our great Turner in his earlier days, (though Turner's
sun had not yet arisen!) that the preliminary drawing for a picture
cannot be too carefully or elaborately done.
After having bumped himself against the wall twice, and tripped over an
ottoman once--to the gazelle's intense surprise--in his efforts to take
an artistic view of his work, Foster at last laid down his pencil,
stretched himself to his full height, with his hands in the air by way
of relaxation, and was beginning to remember that midday meals were not
unknown to man, when the negress before mentioned entered with a small
round brass tray, on which were two covered dishes. The middy lowered
his hands in prompt confusion, for he had not attained to the Moors'
sublime indifference to the opinion or thought of slaves.
He was about to speak, but checked the impulse. It was wiser to hold
his tongue! A kindliness of disposition, however, induced him to smile
and nod--attentions which impelled the negress, as she retired, to
display her teeth and gums to an extent that no one would believe if we
were to describe it.
On examination it was found that one of the dishes contained a savoury
compound of rice and chicken, with plenty of butter and other
substances--some of which were sweet.
The other dish contained little rolls of bread. Both dishes appeared to
Foster to be made of embossed gold--or brass, but he knew and cared not
which. Coffee in a cup about the size and shape of an egg was his
beverage. While engaged with the savoury and altogether unexpected
meal, our hero felt his elbow touched. Looking round he saw the gazelle
looking at him with an expression in its beautiful eyes that said
plainly, "Give me my share."
"You shall have it, my dear," said the artist, handing the creature a
roll, with which it retired contentedly to its cushion.
"Perhaps," thought the youth, as he pensively sipped his coffee, "this
room may be sometimes used by Hester! It obviously forms part of the
seraglio."
Strange old fellow, Ben-Ahmed, to allow men like me to invade such a
place.
The thought of the ladies of the harem somehow suggested his mother and
sister, and when poor George got upon this pair of rails he was apt to
be run away with, and to forget time and place. The reverie into which
he wandered was interrupted, however, by the gazelle asking for more.
As there was no more, it was fain to content itself with a pat on the
head as the painter rose to resume his work.
The drawing was by this time all pencilled in most elaborately, and the
middy opened the water-colour box to examine the paints. As he did so,
he again remarked on the familiar English look of the materials, and was
about to begin rubbing down a little of one of the cakes--moist colours
had not been invented--when he observed some writing in red paint on the
back of the palette. He started and flushed, while his heart beat
faster, for the writing was, "_Expect me. Rub this out. H.S_."
What could this mean? H.S? Hester Sommers of course. It was simple--
too simple. He wished for more--like the gazelle. Like it, too, he got
no more. After gazing at the writing, until every letter was burnt into
his memory, he obeyed the order and rubbed it out. Then, in a disturbed
and anxious frame of mind, he tried to paint, casting many a glance, not
only at his subject, but at the two doors which opened into the room.
At last one of the doors opened--not the one he happened to be looking
at, however. He started up, overturned his stool, and all but knocked
down the easel, as the negress re-entered to remove the
refreshment-tray. She called to the gazelle as she went out. It
bounded lightly after her, and the young painter was left alone to
recover his composure.
"Ass that I am!" he said, knitting his brows, clenching his teeth, and
putting a heavy dab of crimson-lake on the ceiling!
At that moment the other door opened, yet so gently and slightly that he
would not have observed it but for the sharp line of light which it let
through. Determined not to be again taken by surprise, he became
absorbed in putting little unmeaning lines round the dab of lake--not so
busily, however, as to prevent his casting rapid furtive glances at the
opening door.
Gradually something white appeared in the aperture--it was a veil.
Something blue--it was an eye. Something quite beyond description
lovely--it was Hester herself, looking--if such be conceivable--like a
scared angel!
"Oh, Mr Foster!" she exclaimed, in a half-whisper, running lightly in,
and holding up a finger by way of caution, "I have so longed to see
you--"
"So have I," interrupted the delighted middy. "Dear H---ah--Miss
Sommers, I mean, I felt sure that--that--this _must_ be your room--no,
what's its name? boudoir; and the gazelle--"
"Yes, yes--oh! never mind that," interrupted the girl impatiently. "My
father--darling father!--any news of _him_."
Blushing with shame that he should have thought of his own feelings
before her anxieties, Foster dropped the little hand which he had
already grasped, and hastened to tell of the meeting with her father in
the Kasba--the ease with which he had recognised him from her
description, and the few hurried words of comfort he had been able to
convey before the slave-driver interfered.
Tears were coursing each other rapidly down Hester's cheeks while he was
speaking; yet they were not tears of unmingled grief.
"Oh, Mr Foster!" she said, seizing the middy's hand, and kissing it,
"how shall I _ever_ thank you?"
Before she could add another word, an unlucky touch of Foster's heel
laid the easel, with an amazing clatter, flat on the marble floor!
Hester bounded through the doorway more swiftly than her own gazelle,
slammed the door behind her, and vanished like a vision.
Poor Foster! Although young and enthusiastic, he was not a coxcomb.
The thrill in the hand that had been kissed told him plainly that he was
hopelessly in love! But a dull weight on his heart told him, he thought
as plainly, that Hester was _not_ in the same condition.
"Dear child!" he said, as he slowly gathered up the drawing materials,
"if that innocent, transparent, almost infantine creature had been old
enough to fall in love she would sooner have hit me on the nose with her
lovely fist than have kissed my great ugly paw--even though she _was_
overwhelmed with joy at hearing about her father."
Having replaced the easel and drawing, he seated himself on an ottoman,
put his elbows on his knees, laid his forehead in his hands, and began
to meditate aloud.
"Yes," he said, with a profound sigh, "I love her--that's as clear as
daylight; and she does not love me--that's clearer than daylight.
Unrequited love! That's what I've come to! Nevertheless, I'm not in
wild despair. How's that? I don't want to shoot or drown myself.
How's that? On the contrary, I want to live and rescue her. I could
serve or die for that child with pleasure--without even the reward of a
smile! There must be something peculiar here. Is it--can it be
Platonic love? Of course that must be it. Yes, I've often heard and
read of that sort of love before. I _know_ it now, and--and--I rather
like it!"
"You don't look as if you did, Geo'ge," said a deep voice beside him.
George started up with a face of scarlet.
"Peter!" he exclaimed fiercely, "did you hear me speak? _What_ did you
hear?"
"Halo! Geo'ge, don't squeeze my arm so! You's hurtin' me. I hear you
say somet'ing 'bout plotummik lub, but what sort o' lub that may be is
more'n I kin tell."
"Are you _sure_ that is all you--But come, Peter, I should have no
secrets from _you_. The truth is," (he whispered low here), "I have
seen Hester Sommers--here, in this room, not half an hour ago--and--and
I feel that I am hopelessly in love with her--Platonically, that is--but
I fear you won't understand what that means--"
The midshipman stopped abruptly. For the first time since they became
acquainted he saw a grave expression of decided disapproval on the face
of his sable friend.
"Geo'ge," said Peter solemnly, "you tell me you hab took 'vantage ob
bein' invited to your master's house to make lub--plo--plotummikilly or
oderwise--to your master's slabe?"
"No, Peter, I told you nothing of the sort. The meeting with Hester was
purely accidental--at least it was none of my seeking--and I did _not_
make love to her--"
"Did _she_ make lub to you, Geo'ge--plo--plotummikilly."
"Certainly not. She came to ask about her poor father, and I saw that
she is far too young to _think_ of falling in love at all. What I said
was that _I_ have fallen hopelessly in love, and that as I cannot hope
that she will ever be--be _mine_, I have made up my mind to love her
hopelessly, but loyally, to the end of life, and serve or die for her if
need be."
"Oh! das all right, Geo'ge. If dat's what you calls plo--plotummik
lub--lub away, my boy, as hard's you kin. Same time, I's not kite so
sure dat she's too young to hub. An' t'ings ain't allers as hopeless as
dey seems. But now, what's dis you bin do here? My! How pritty. Oh!
das _real_ bootiful. But what's you got in de ceiling--de sun, eh?"
He pointed to the dab of crimson-lake.